In a statement, the miller said it sympathised with the issues facing everyone in the industry.

"We know the $2/t levy is hard for everyone but without it, we could not have completed our maintenance program and the 2018 season would have been much worse than previous seasons," the statement read.

"We thank growers, who are also our owners and shareholders, for making this contribution to their business so we can crush in 2018."

The company is currently working on a majority sale of the business which 75 per cent of the growers need to support.

In a recent circular sent to growers, Mackay Sugar chairman Mark Day said the recapitalisation plan was slightly behind its initial timetable.

However, Mr Day remained optimistic the process could be completed by December "subject to an acceptable bid".

Next generation growers in doubt

For some growers though, the process has taken too long and waiting has taken a toll.

Some say they ready to leave their farms while others consider turning to cattle production.

Mr Bowman has spent money expanding his farm for his children, but lately he questioned whether it was even worth it.

"If I did not have kids, I would sell this farm tomorrow and I would be gone. But I have, so I owe it to them to let them go farming," he said.

"We are all getting older, we are all getting sick of it and we are not making much money … there is only so much we can take."

He said he was disgusted with Mackay Sugar and the fact its situation had deteriorated so much.

"We have been telling them for six or seven years that they have been doing the wrong thing," he said.

Mr Bowman's wife, Andrea, said she worried about the next generation of cane farmers, especially her own children.

"If we do not keep it together, there will be no next generation … with the industry the way it is, I just do not know what is going to happen," she said.

The Bowman kids

Nine-year-old Clea and 11-year-old Calan Bowman both want to follow in their father's footsteps and take over the cane farm near Mackay.

When the ABC visited the family property, Calan said he loved the life and wanted to stay.

"I would like to stay here and have my own kids, retire and let them do it," he said.

Siblings Clea (front), Calan and Mikayla Bowman want to see the farm stay in the family.

(ABC Rural: Lara Webster)

Siblings Clea (front), Calan and Mikayla Bowman want to see the farm stay in the family.

Nineteen-year-old sister Mikayla has graduated from school and works for Sugar Research Australia.

She too wanted to see the farm stay in the family and passed on to her brothers.

"I know how passionate they are about taking over the farm and I will help out if they ever need me," Mikayla said.

"I think it is very important that we keep this going … we want to keep this going."

Cane or Cattle

Phillip Head is another Mackay Sugar grower who openly admitted the situation with his miller had taken its toll.

"It is heartbreaking really, especially when I have been involved with farming all my life and taken over a family farm that has been in the family for over 100 years," he said.

"At the present moment they all get up me, every morning, because of the time I get out of bed. I have just lost interest."

Phillip and Helen Head with sons Mitchell and Matthew are considering turning their cane farm over to cattle production.

(ABC Rural: Lara Webster)

Phillip and Helen Head with sons Mitchell and Matthew are considering turning their cane farm over to cattle production.

He told Mackay Sugar he would be increasing his cattle herd from 300 to 600 head, and more, if the current situation did not improve.

"If the industry does not turn around our plans are to take the whole lot [of cane] out and we are going to run 1,000 head," he said.

Mr Head has two adult sons, Mitchell and Matthew.

"I have told my boys if they are not interested in farming, I will sell out," he said.

Both sons help their father run the family property, but for Matthew Head the prospect of farming is not as exciting as it once was.

"It is disappointing hearing all of the stories of what it was to what it is now," he said.

"The way it is going you lose interest. You go for smoko and instead of going for one hour you are having two."

Joint venture hope

Phillip Head and Faron Bowman agree that a joint venture could turn things around, but want it to happen sooner rather than later.

Mr Head said he believed the situation would improve if investors came on board.

"I think if someone comes along and takes it over they have to make money so they should actually make the mills perform," he said.

"If they turn the mills around, farmers probably will turn around and come on board with them.

"If they could turn it around to 90 per cent of what the industry used to be, it would be a good industry to be back in."

In its statement to the ABC, Mackay Sugar said "past decisions of MSL some time ago have not provided the profits forecast at the time and the mills have suffered in performance from underinvestment for some time".

"We are actively pursuing investors and … a number of seriously interested parties who are conducting their due diligence on MSL," it said.

Mackay Sugar is currently working on a majority sale of the business to ensure the future of the company.

(ABC News: Josh Bavas)

Mackay Sugar is currently working on a majority sale of the business to ensure the future of the company.

"Sugar prices are low and there is nothing we can do to change this in the near term. It is due to an oversupply in the world and these things take some time to reverse.

The industry has been here over 100 years and has weathered this in the past.

"We know that with a bit of time the prices will rise again and we want to be in a position so that the growers benefit from this."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Florida Sugar Cane League announced April 9 that the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, based in Belle Glade, is once again represented by the industry trade association. This move ensures that the three major sugarcane companies in Florida – along with their independent growers – are fully united under the banner of the Florida Sugar Cane League as debate over no-cost American sugar policy takes place in Congress.

“With Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, we are united under the Florida Sugar Cane League as Congress considers the future of farm policy and food security in America,” said Ryan Weston, CEO of the Florida Sugar Cane League. “Florida’s sugarcane farmers play such an important role in helping to secure America’s domestic food supply in one of the most important food producing regions of the entire country.”

“On behalf of our 44 member growers, their families and our employees, we are thrilled to once again be joined in a united front through the Florida Sugar Cane League with U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals in Washington, D.C. efforts,” said Tony Contreras, president and CEO of Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative. Even when the cooperative was not formally part of the league, we still worked together on common issues, particularly important legislative policies. We’re happy to provide a united voice on behalf of the more than 12,500 people in Florida employed by sugarcane farming and processing.”

“There’s always strength in numbers,” said Robert H. Buker, president and CEO of U.S. Sugar. With the cooperative and its growers back on board, Florida’s representation in Washington is unified in its efforts to retain commonsense, zero-cost sugar policy in our nation’s capital. Both sugar as a matter of national farm policy and as a food product remain a bargain, and we intend to keep it that way. The last thing we need is for predatory foreign governments who heavily subsidize their own sugar farmers to be putting American farmers out of business. We’ve always been a formidable team when the Florida industry joins together for a common goal.”

“Florida Crystals partners with Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative on many business fronts and we’re delighted to work with them through the Florida Sugar Cane League,” said Pepe Fanjul, Jr., executive vice president of Florida Crystals. “This announcement sends a message that our industry is more united than ever. We look forward to working with our friends at the cooperative throughout the farm bill debate to ensure American sugarcane and sugar beet farmers, processors and refiners can continue to sustainable produce safe, affordable food here at home.”

The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, based in Belle Glade, is once again represented by the Florida Sugar Cane League, the industry trade association.

This move ensures that the three major sugar cane companies in Florida — along with their independent growers — are fully united under the banner of the Florida Sugar Cane League as debate over no-cost American sugar policy takes place in Congress, league officials said.

Sugar cane is planted on approximately 440,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Most of the production is in Palm Beach County, but sugar cane is also grown in Hendry, Glades and Martin counties.

“With the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, we are united under the Florida Sugar Cane League as Congress considers the future of farm policy and food security in America,” Ryan Weston, CEO of the Florida Sugar Cane League, said Monday. “Florida’s sugar cane farmers play such an important role in helping to secure America’s domestic food supply in one of the most important food-producing regions of the entire country.”

This year is a crucial year for farmers as the 2018 farm bill goes through the political process. The farm bill is a comprehensive food and agriculture bill that Congress typically enacts every four or five years.

While the sugar industry lobbies to keep the federal sugar program, large sugar users such as candy companies, have lobbied for years to end the program.

The federal sugar program is a combination of price support loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, marketing allotments that limit how much sugar can be sold, and a program that allows the USDA to purchase sugar and take it out of the market. A main component is tariff rate quotas, which limit the amount of raw and refined sugar that is allowed to be imported duty-free from other countries.

A Cato Institute study released Tuesday found that government market manipulation results in domestic sugar prices twice those of the world sugar market.

Tony Contreras, president and CEO of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, said, “On behalf of our 44 member growers, their families and our employees, we are thrilled to once again be joined in a united front through the Florida Sugar Cane League with U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals in Washington, D.C. efforts. Even when the Cooperative was not formally part of the League, we still worked together on common issues, particularly important legislative policies. We’re happy to provide a united voice on behalf of the more than 12,500 people in Florida employed by sugarcane farming and processing.”

Robert Buker, president and CEO of Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp. said, “With the Cooperative and its growers back on board, Florida’s representation in Washington is unified in its efforts to retain commonsense, zero-cost sugar policy in our nation’s capital. Both sugar as a matter of national farm policy and as a food product remain a bargain, and we intend to keep it that way. The last thing we need is for predatory foreign governments who heavily subsidize their own sugar farmers to be putting American farmers out of business.”

Pepe Fanjul, Jr., executive vice president of Florida Crystals Corp., headquartered in West Palm Beach, said, “Florida Crystals partners with Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative on many business fronts and we’re delighted to work with them through the Florida Sugar Cane League. This announcement sends a message that our industry is more united than ever. We look forward to working with our friends at the Cooperative throughout the Farm Bill debate to ensure American sugarcane and sugar beet farmers, processors and refiners can continue to sustainably produce safe, affordable food here at home.”

Most people living in the United States, experience four seasons — spring, summer, fall and winter. Though defining lines for those seasons have become somewhat blurred in the northeast, with the heavy snowfalls that have extended into spring, in Louisiana, the seasons are marked by factors other than the weather.

According to Louisianatravel.com, a website whose message is, “Feed your soul,” and highlights local cultural events and food throughout the state, there are many more seasons to enjoy in Louisiana. As one might guess, most of them also involve food.

In light of the popularity of crawfish in all forms, some might consider the year to start with crawfish season, usually in late winter through early spring, with the king cakes of Mardi Gras season falling somewhere in-between. Crab season follows in late spring through early fall, with shrimp season in May through July for brown shrimp and April through December for white shrimp. Prime oyster season is October through April.

The long hot days of summer lend themselves to snowball season. Tailgating season, the long-awaited period when those beloved football games resume in stadiums across the state, occurs during the seasons traditionally known as fall and winter.

Having recently visited Enterprise Plantation in Patoutville, and learned of the history of M. A. Patout and Son LLC., I am convinced that two more seasons, Easter and sugar cane harvest time, should be recognized for the sweetness that we celebrate in south Louisiana.

Because of the operations of M. A. Patout and Son, founded in 1825 and one of the longest family-owned businesses in the United States, its three raw sugar factories are an integral part of an industry that has a great impact on our state. Information from the American Sugar Cane League notes an annual economic impact of $2 billion dollars to cane growers and raw sugar factories, with an overall $3 billion dollars to our state’s economy.

Grown on more than 400,000 acres of land in 22 Louisiana parishes, the 11 raw sugar factories process approximately 13 million tons of cane a year. On average, approximately 230 pounds of sugar are extracted per ton of cane.

To sweeten this economic impact even further, the past 2017 sugar cane harvest was one of the best seasons for the amount of tons of sugar cane produced and sugar recovery obtained. This vital state product, sugar, is a pure carbohydrate, contains no man-made chemicals and is an important nutrient which supplies energy to the body.

Sugar has also found its way into another season with the approaching Christian commemoration of Easter, the most important day of the year for Christians. In remembering Christ’s rising from the dead three days after His crucifixion, the symbol of the egg evolved into the customs of early Christians signifying the resurrection of Jesus. The egg was colored red in memory of the blood He shed. Over the ages the Easter eggs were dyed in other colors, and in addition to the traditional boiled egg, are now made up of chocolate and other sugary ingredients, to the delight of young and old alike.

An Easter favorite, which outsells other national candy leaders along the Gulf Coast, is the Elmer’s Gold Brick, Heavenly Hash and Pecan eggs produced by the Elmer Candy Company, which beginnings date back to 1855 in New Orleans. Pastry chef Henry Miller, with his son-in-law Augustus Elmer, opened the candy factory. These Easter basket staples are now produced by a third generation Nelson family, owners in Ponchatoula.

With the sweetness of salvation obtained through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the blessings of an abundant sugar harvest and the delicacies of chocolate, marshmallow and pecan Easter eggs found in baskets throughout our homes Easter mornings, we cannot help but celebrate these sweet seasons in south Louisiana.

The following recipe is a quick and easy one which celebrates the flavors of this beautiful spring season. It can be made ahead leaving time for church services and Easter egg hunts.

Lemonade Cheesecake

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 6-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 12-ounce carton frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 graham cracker pie shells

Fresh Louisiana strawberries and more whipped topping for garnish, if desired

Beat cream cheese, condensed milk and lemonade concentrate until smooth. Fold in carton of whipped topping. Divide into two graham cracker pie shells. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Top with more whipped topping and sliced strawberries, if desired. May be frozen ahead, thawed, and garnished with whipped topping and strawberries just prior to serving.

The venture’s partners, sugar producers Florida Crystals Corp. and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, have invested $75 million and hired 50 people to operate the plant. More than 90 percent of its workforce is from the Glades region. The company expects that to grow to $100 million and 100 jobs within five years at the facility next to the cooperative’s mill.

Matt Hoffman, Tellus president, told the 300 attendees, “Take a moment to consider that our society uses 20 times more plastic than it did in the 1960s, and only 2 percent of that plastic is actually recycled. Estimates are that by 2050 that number could triple and our oceans will contain more pounds of plastic than pounds of fish.

Plastic items such as plates might only be used for five minutes, but can take a thousand years or more to decompose.

The sugarcane fiber products are also more sustainable than making paper plates from trees, as the cane grows much faster.

“We have to ask ourselves if there is a better way. We have a solution. We can take a local crop that grows over 12 feet in 12 months, produce homegrown food and renewable energy and still have enough all-natural plant fiber to make sustainable products that displace plastic and Styrofoam and allow the same, convenient, single-serving use, but will go back to the ground and compost within 90 days,” Hoffman said.

Tellus is the Latin word for earth. Hoffman said the company’s motto is: “From the plants we grow to the products we create, we consider the impact to the Planet in everything we do. Tellus..Plant..Product…Planet.”

Once harvested, the sugarcane is processed, and the water, sugar, molasses and sugarcane fiber, also called bagasse, are separated. Some of the fiber goes to create biomass power, and the rest goes to create a slurry that is dried.

Through forming molds, the dried fiber is shaped into take-out containers, plates and bowls. Food service clients will be the first customers, and in a few weeks Tellus will announce how consumers can buy its products through e-commerce. Pricing is expected to be comparable to that of good-quality paper plates.

Hoffman said 35,000 plates can be produced from each ton of bagasse.

The initiative was five years in the making. It began after Rob Sproull, vice president of marketing and product development with ASR Group, a company owned by Florida Crystals and the Cooperative, saw single-use plates made from sugarcane fiber at a trade show. He was told they were manufactured in Thailand and China.

He pitched the idea to the Cooperative’s CEO Antonio Contreras and Florida Crystals’ executive vice president and chief financial officer Luis Fernandez. Then several years of research began.

Contreras said, “When we created Tellus, we had the option to site it next to any of our sugar facilities in the USA or at one of our factories internationally. In the end, we knew there was nowhere else we would want to continue to invest than here in Florida, which has a wonderful business climate, and more specifically, in the Glades communities, which have been our home since the 1960s.”

Last year the Palm Beach County Commission approved an $850,000 property tax exemption over 10 years for Tellus, because it is in the Glades region. The county said in the economic development incentive agreement that the Glades region has poverty rates and unemployment rates that are respectively, double and quadruple the national averages.

The agreement requires the creation of 71 new jobs by March 2022.

“We are generating a tax bill of almost $850,000 each year. We are creating an economic impact of well over $100 million,” Hoffman said.

Jobs at the plant range from engineers to mechanics, quality control technicians and equipment operators. The starting wage is $15.84 an hour, with benefits.

Gov. Scott, who first ran eight years ago on a jobs creation platform, said he especially likes events such as Tuesday’s in areas where it has been more difficult to grow jobs.

“Call all of your friends and tell them they need to start buying Tellus products as of today,” Scott said.

Putnam lauded the operation as evidence of technology and vertical integration in agriculture, and said, “It’s a Florida-grown crop, with Florida-grown technology and it’s making Florida-grown jobs.”

Florida Crystals’ Fernandez said that sugarcane is one of the most efficient plants at converting sunlight to food and energy.

The plant runs on sugarcane-based power provided by the mill next door. Tellus’ office building is powered by a 126-panel solar array.

“Sugarcane could be called a revolutionary crop if it hadn’t been cultivated for thousands of years. With the launch of Tellus, we couldn’t be more enthusiastic about creating yet another sustainable, high-value product from our sugarcane,” Fernandez said.

Alfonso Fanjul, chairman and chief executive officer of Florida Crystals Corp., headquartered in West Palm Beach, and his brother Pepe Fanjul, vice chairman, chief operating officer and president of the company, were nominated for the honor by John L. Hundley, their longtime business partner.

Florida Crystals and Hundley, founder/president of Hundley Farms in Belle Glade, have a joint sweet corn farming venture that dates back 27 years.

The Fanjul family’s roots in sugar reach back more than 150 years. The family left Cuba in 1959, founded their company in Florida in 1960 as Osceola Farms Co. and New Hope Sugar Company.

At that time, the family purchased 4,000 acres of land in western Palm Beach County and several sugar mills in Louisiana. The mills were dismantled, transported by barge to Florida and erected in Pahokee as the Osceola sugar mill. The first crop of 10,500 tons of sugar was produced in 1961-62.

Today Florida Crystals farms on 190,000 acres in Palm Beach County and grows conventional and organic sugarcane, sweet corn and rice. The company also owns and operates two sugar mills, a sugar refinery, a rice mill, a packaging and distribution center and the largest biomass renewable power plant in North America, all in Palm Beach County.

Florida Crystals’ subsidiary, ASR Group, which it owns in partnership with Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, is the world’s largest cane sugar refining company, with refineries in Louisiana, California, New York, Maryland, Canada, Mexico, England, Italy and Portugal.

At the ceremony in Tampa attended by more than 500 people, the brothers said the honor is meaningful because it came from fellow farmers.

“It is recognition by our peers, the people who really know what heart and grit it takes to succeed in agriculture,” Alfy Fanjul said. “When people ask me what I do for a living, I say, ‘I’m a farmer.’ That’s what I am. I have done every job there is to do on a farm.”

Pepe Fanjul said, “Alfy and I believe that this honor is given to those who love the land and are champions of agriculture. We have dedicated our lives to protecting farmland and to keeping farmland in food production, and we will continue to do so for our descendants.”

The brothers grew up going to their family farms with their father and their grandfathers. Farming is their heritage and today, the sixth generation of the Fanjul family is working at Florida Crystals.

While Florida’s sugarcane was once hand-harvested, it is has been fully machine-harvested since the early 1990s.

Through the brothers’ leadership, Florida Crystals has invested in precision agriculture, which allows the company to use precise amounts of fertilizer and other inputs only when they are needed.

Florida Crystals has a state-of-the-art research center in Belle Glade with adjacent greenhouses and a new agricultural center where the precision data is analyzed.

Alfy Fanjul said, “The advancements in science and technology that we are employing on our farms make me more excited than I have ever been. We are growing more food to feed more people, and we’ve never been more sustainable. Florida agriculture has a wonderful story and a bright future, and we’re so proud to be part of it.”

Other producers who farm in the Everglades Agricultural Area who have been inducted into the hall of fame include Edward, Ferdinand and Joseph Duda in 2015, Fritz Stein in 2008, George Wedgworth in 1994 and Ruth Wedgworth in 1988.

CANE growers, millers and harvester operators in Mackay and Proserpine will be able to learn more about maximising their harvest at forums in May.

Harvesting efficiency and optimisation is the focus of the Sugar Research Australia forums, being held in 12 regional locations in the lead-up to the 2018 harvest.

Sugar Research Australia adoption officer for harvesting, Phil Patane, said improving harvesting efficiency was a complex problem that involved multiple stakeholders and considerations, but was also a major opportunity for the Australian industry to extract more from value chain.

"SRA has trial results building to show cane and sugar loss as a result of a range of economic drivers across the harvesting, transport, and milling value chain,” Mr Patane said.

"In some cases, practice change may come with additional costs, but SRA is working with growers, millers, and harvesting groups across the industry to provide them with precise information to help inform their decisions.

"In order to make practice change, the industry needs detailed information on what losses are occurring and what they stand to gain if they change practice to further optimise the harvest.

"This has been the focus of on-farm demonstration trials in 2017, where we have worked with local harvesting groups, in their own conditions, to define what sugar and cane loss they may be incurring.

"The 2018 forums will report extensively on the results of these demonstration trials. The forums will also be an opportunity for harvesting groups to take part in a new round of demonstration trials for the coming harvest. This will allow them to assess harvesting efficiency in their own local region, and local conditions.

The forums will also present information from a range of innovative research activities.

"We will hear about research that is looking at the design and function of harvesters to see if improvements can be made to ensure we are harvesting more sugar,” Mr Patane said.

"We will also hear about a new online tool, called SCHLOT, which provides advice for harvester operators to optimise the harvest.”

Sugar Research Australia's work in harvesting efficiency is being driven by a project called Enhancing the sugar industry value chain by addressing mechanical harvest losses through research, technology and adoption.

This project is funded by SRA and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of the Rural R&D for Profit program.

Steve Messam describes his city, Belle Glade, as having two main exports:

"Sugar," he said, "and wide receivers."

Local lore has it that National Football League standouts -- including Super Bowl-winning wide receivers Anquan Boldin and Santonio Holmes -- hone their speed by chasing rabbits through burning fields, as controlled fires strip sugarcane of excess leaves in preparation for the harvest.

But some in the Glades communities around Lake Okeechobee's southern rim say the smoke from those fires is a serious health risk. Their fears have ignited a movement to "stop the burn" and use greener harvesting techniques.

"They are burning the trash off the cane," Messam, one of the movement's organizers, told a crowd of environmentalists and policymakers at last week's Everglades Coalition meeting. "It's supposed to increase the sugar density inside of the stalk. But it's really causing problems to myself and to a lot of the folks in the Glades communities."

Messam, who grew up in South Bay and now lives with his family in Belle Glade, says that for the six months each year when sugar growers burn their fields people’s allergies get worse and ash discolors homes and businesses.

"Daily, we have what we call 'black snow' raining down on our homes, raining down on our cars and causing a lot of respiratory issues," he said.

In 2015, Palm Beach County's spokesman for the state health department told WLRN there's no indication of a violation of federal air-quality standards.

Messam says in communities where U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals are people's main sources of income (unless you're an NFL star) it's hard to generate support for a movement that might result in restrictions on burning or force growers to invest in new harvesting technology.

"It’s almost as we are beholden to them because they are the largest employer to the Glades communities," he said.

Steve Messam describes his city, Belle Glade, as having two main exports:

"Sugar," he said, "and wide receivers."

Local lore has it that National Football League standouts -- including Super Bowl-winning wide receivers Anquan Boldin and Santonio Holmes -- hone their speed by chasing rabbits through burning fields, as controlled fires strip sugarcane of excess leaves in preparation for the harvest.

But some in the Glades communities around Lake Okeechobee's southern rim say the smoke from those fires is a serious health risk. Their fears have ignited a movement to "stop the burn" and use greener harvesting techniques.

"They are burning the trash off the cane," Messam, one of the movement's organizers, told a crowd of environmentalists and policymakers at last week's Everglades Coalition meeting. "It's supposed to increase the sugar density inside of the stalk. But it's really causing problems to myself and to a lot of the folks in the Glades communities."

Messam, who grew up in South Bay and now lives with his family in Belle Glade, says that for the six months each year when sugar growers burn their fields people’s allergies get worse and ash discolors homes and businesses.

"Daily, we have what we call 'black snow' raining down on our homes, raining down on our cars and causing a lot of respiratory issues," he said.

In 2015, Palm Beach County's spokesman for the state health department told WLRN there's no indication of a violation of federal air-quality standards.

Messam says in communities where U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals are people's main sources of income (unless you're an NFL star) it's hard to generate support for a movement that might result in restrictions on burning or force growers to invest in new harvesting technology.

"It’s almost as we are beholden to them because they are the largest employer to the Glades communities," he said.